As Cold as Ice
by Gamma Orionis
Summary: Luna is brought to Malfoy Manor by the Death Eaters as a bride for Draco, unwilling but unable to protest as long as she wants to keep her life. Written for Laux14's Multichapter Forced Marriage Competition on the HPFC forum.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: Written for Laux14's Multi-chapter Forced Marriage Competition on the HPFC forum – the challenge being exactly what it sounds like.

Voldemort wins!AU (yes, another…), Draco/Luna, warnings for forced marriage (obviously), implications of rape and assorted war crimes, general bad things.

* * *

_Every other touch runs as cold as ice..._  
_If I get to close, I may pay the price,_  
_But I remember you._  
_Yes, I remember the things you do to me..._

_~Emilie Autumn_

)O(

_Prologue_

Luna was sitting quietly at the kitchen table. She was often quiet – she had always been, even before the war, so much more interested in the thoughts that went skittering silently through her mind than in the world that could be conveyed through words and sounds – but now, more than ever, she preferred to stay quiet.

She liked to think of it as taking a moment of silence for the people who were dying in the war – and what did it matter if the moment stretched out for days and days on end?

"Luna?" her father asked softly, sitting down beside her. She had been sitting with her hands folded before her, staring down at them and doing nothing more than listening to her thoughts. She looked up at him and made herself smile.

"Yes, Daddy?"

"I worry about you when you're like this," he told her solemnly.

"Like what?"

"Quiet… not just quiet, but worried… when you're unhappy, I'm unhappy." He brushed a lock of her hair tenderly from her forehead and Luna smiled again, a genuine smile this time.

"I'm not unhappy, Daddy," she told him. "Really, I'm not. I'm just thinking."

"And what are you thinking, my Luna?"

Luna looked back down at her hands.

_She was thinking about Malfoy Manor. About being trapped in that cellar with no hope of escape, with only Mr. Ollivander and Dean Thomas for company, and they were mostly kept locked in another part…_

_They were mostly kept locked in another part so that the Death Eaters could come down and be alone with her–_

Luna closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again and shook her head. "I was thinking about Harry Potter."

"About Harry Potter?" her father asked. "What were you thinking about Harry Potter?"

"Just that I wonder what things would have been like if he hadn't gone into the Forbidden Forest." Luna's voice trembled a little bit and she had to force her smile not to slip.

She had not been able to stop thinking about it since the battle. Harry Potter had gone into the forest alive and come out lying limply in Hagrid's arms and that had been the moment when everything had been lost. Luna often lay in bed now and wondered whether things would have been different if he had just stayed out of the forest, or whether Voldemort would have come for him and everything would have been the same…

"It does not do to dwell on what might have been, my Luna," he told her quietly. "We cannot know what might have been."

"I know," she said. "But I still wish that things had been different."

"To wish is one thing. To let it consume you is another entirely."

"I won't let it consume me, Daddy," Luna promised. "I just like to think sometimes."

He nodded, then sat back from her, glancing around the kitchen. "Let's have some tea. We haven't had tea in a long time…" Luna looked up at him and was aware that he was looking at her quite desperately, as though begging her to accept.

"That would be nice," she said, and he looked terribly relieved. He all but leapt to his feet to boil a kettle for the tea and Luna resumed staring at her hands.

_Could she have stopped Harry from going into the forest if she had tried? _

What would have happened if she had? Would he have listened to her if she told him not to go? Would everything have been worse – would the Death Eaters have attacked again and killed them all to get to him?

Things had been quieter since the battle, she supposed. Eerily quiet, even – Luna hadn't heard a single thing about the Death Eaters since she had gone home for the summer.

Was no news good news? Should she think that the Death Eaters were taking less interest in people now, or should she think that they simply weren't letting any information get out?

Her father set a cup down in front of her and she lifted it to her lips immediately, burning her lips but swallowing a mouthful anyway. "Thank you, Daddy."

He didn't say anything else to her, and the two of them sat in silence again, but it was quiet and companionable, not at all sombre. Luna found herself smiling genuinely again, despite the slight stinging pain where she had burned her mouth.

Then there was a crash.

Luna had just lifted her cup again and it slipped from her hand, smashing on the floorboards and spilling hot tea on her bare feet. Xenophilius jumped to his feet, grabbing his wand, but the door had already burst open and two figures strode in. Both were hooded and masked and their wands were already out.

"Daddy!" Luna cried, even as her father's wand flew from his hand into one of the Death Eaters'.

"What do you want?" he asked. His voice shook, but he stepped protectively in front of Luna, holding his arms out. "We'll be happy to help–"

"Don't bother, Lovegood," said one of the figures, and Luna recognized Lucius Malfoy's voice. It was a little rougher and shakier even than she had remembered, but it was still his. "We want your daughter. There's no use trying to stop us – we won't hurt her, but we'll hurt you if you don't stand aside."

"M- my daughter?" Her father was trying to keep his voice steady, but Luna could hear it shaking. She was frozen in place and unable to register fear, though she knew on _some_ level that she ought to have been positively terrified. "What do you want with my daughter?"

"Isn't it enough to say we aren't going to hurt her?" Lucius slashed his wand through the air and Luna squeaked as her father crumpled.

"Daddy!"

He groaned softly, but Lucius had already shoved past him and gripped Luna by her upper arm.

"You're coming with us," he told her, in that low, terrifying sneer that he had used with her more than once while she was trapped at Malfoy Manor. Luna recoiled slightly at his touch, but she knew better than to fight. Fighting had gotten her in trouble…

"My Luna–" her father cried, sitting up and clutching his head with one hand, grabbing after her with the other. "My Luna–"

"Don't worry, Daddy," Luna whispered. "Please – it won't do any good–"

The second Death Eater grabbed her by her other arm and they disapparated with her, and the last thing Luna heard was her father crying.


	2. Chapter One

It was all so dreadfully familiar to Luna.

A part of her even wondered whether she had managed to step back in time, back into herself as she had been when the Death Eaters first took her away. The way that they were gripping her arms now, dragging her along, towards a pair of tall, imposing gates and up a cobbled walkway towards the familiar form of Malfoy Manor, was exactly how she remembered it happening before. The memories were enough to send terrible shivers down her spine and the knowledge that Lucius Malfoy was so close behind her made it even worse.

"Don't fight," one of the Death Eaters growled, tightening his grip on her arm. Luna bit her lip to stop herself from gasping. There were tears in the backs of her eyes and she had to fight to keep them from falling, just as she had to so many other times in far less serious situations. She was skilled at keeping herself from crying. Because Luna Lovegood did not cry.

The Manor doors swung open and the Death Eaters led her through, and it was almost as if she was being escorted. If she closed her eyes and let herself be guided by them without looking, she could almost pretend that she was a princess being brought before an adoring crowd rather than a frightened little girl being dragged into her prison again.

She had barely taken two steps inside when she was all but pounced on. Her eyes flew open and she stared straight into the bright, glittering eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Our little house guest is back!" she cooed, and gripped Luna's jaw in a claw-like hand, making her wince where her nails dug into her skin.

"Don't manhandle the girl, Bellatrix," Lucius said from over Luna's shoulder. His voice was soft and satin smooth, tinged very lightly with slight amusement. "You don't want her to be damaged, do you?"

"You're a fine one to talk about not damaging, after what happened when she was here last time," Bellatrix said. The corner of her lip curled up into a sharp, frightening sneer. "I don't recall you being worried about damaging her then…"'

_No, he didn't_.

Luna shivered and tried to pull away a little, but Bellatrix just dug her nails into her cheeks.

"Don't fight, little girl. It won't do you any good," Bellatrix purred. "It didn't before, and it will do even less now, when you don't have your little friends to come help you…" Then Bellatrix turned and called out to someone presumably lurking in another room. "Come out! She's here!"

There was a brief, tense silence and Luna wondered whether Bellatrix had been heard or if she was even calling to a real person or whether she thought that her Master could hear her. Then a door creaked open and Draco Malfoy stepped out.

Draco had never been a particularly strong-looking boy. Luna had always thought him rather unpleasantly peaked and pale, and he had looked particularly weak and sickly last time she had seen him, which had been at the battle. Before that, when she had been last imprisoned in Malfoy Manor, he had seemed, if possible, even worse. But now, it seemed almost as though what little life he had had before had been sucked out of him entirely, leaving a weak and skeletal shell of a boy. He looked to Luna as though he hadn't eaten in days or perhaps even weeks. His eyes were rimmed with pink and Luna wondered if he had been crying, and if so, what over.

Narcissa Malfoy followed her son, one thin hand gripping his shoulder so tightly that her knuckles were white and her fingertips bunched the fabric of Draco's shirt. Her eyes were also reddened, and, in her case, it was much easier to tell that she'd been crying. Her smooth, fair complexion was blotchy and pink and her eye makeup had run and streaked down her cheeks. There were dark shadows under her eyes that were obviously partly caused by ruined mascara and partly lack of sleep, though she had done a cursory job of brushing the makeup away.

"Draco…" Bellatrix sang out softly. "She's here…"

Draco looked briefly at Luna, then away. She saw him twisting the hem of his shirt between his fingers and could tell that he had done it many times before, because it was frayed. Luna felt an incredible urge to reach out and touch his hand, still it, stop him from twisting the cloth any more because it wouldn't do any good if he continued to, but her arms were still held immobile, so she settled for trying to catch his eye, though he was looking resolutely away from her, at the floor.

"Draco," Narcissa said quietly, and he looked up at his mother. Even though he was turned partially away from Luna, she could see the desperation in his eyes. She could _tell_ that he was mentally begging his mother to get him away from there and she shook her head just slightly before she pushed Draco gently towards Bellatrix.

"Well?" Bellatrix demanded. "You're going to look at her, aren't you?"

"I've seen her before," Draco mumbled. "I know what she looks like."

"She's very pretty…" purred Bellatrix. "Don't you think so, Draco? Such lovely hair, such lovely eyes… aren't you pleased that she's a Pureblood? Aren't you pleased that the Dark Lord picked her?"

Draco made a small, noncommittal noise in the back of his throat. He was focussing on the ground and not looking at Luna, who glanced worriedly between Bellatrix and him, then back, trying to catch the eye of one of the Death Eaters. Lucius was turned resolutely away from her, staring at his son, and the others only leered when they looked at her.

"_Aren't you pleased_," Bellatrix repeated, very slowly and clearly, grabbing the front of Draco's shirt and pulling him around to face her, "that the Dark Lord picked her?"

"Yes," Draco mumbled.

"What did the Dark Lord pick me for?" Luna piped up. She supposed that it was really a bit unwise to ask – she had learned that it was generally better to keep silent with the Death Eaters – but she could think of nothing that they could do to punish her that they hadn't already done and she would rather understand what was happening.

"Haven't you told her?" Bellatrix looked up at Lucius with abject surprise, and he shook his head.

"I thought it would be better for Draco to be here when she was told."

"Oh, quite so…" Bellatrix let out a small laugh. "Draco, you tell her…"

Draco didn't say a word and Bellatrix's eyes narrowed slightly. She grabbed Draco by his shoulder, yanked him away from Narcissa and physically dragged him so that he was face-to-face with Luna. He met her eyes, and his expression was full of terror, as if he was being brought before an executioner instead of a prisoner.

"Well, now, come on, Draco," Bellatrix prompted, prodding him in the small of his back. "Come on. Say hello to her. Be polite and say hello to your bride-to-be."


End file.
